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Rare Story Of A Charity School For Tribal Girls

This is a rare story of how a person from Valsad (Gujarat) turned into someone serving Aadivasi (tribal) girls far away from his home in the interiors of the Dharampur forests.

Naresh Ramanandi, my friend Sanjay Mahant’s brother-in-law, is a dedicated follower of Shri Rang Avadhoot Bapji of Nareshwar. Bapji once told I shall take rebirth as an Adivasi. So in search of Shri Avadhoot Bapji, Nareshji opted to reach this area and thought of some service activity.

Being a Kathaakar of Ramayana (storyteller of holy books), he heard Rama telling ‘I shall be with Aadivasis, Bheels and such deprived people for 12 years during ‘Vanvaasa’ offered by mother Kaikeyi and only then become the King of Ayodhya. This inspired Nareshji to go for this. (Naresh Ramanandi has more than 108 Katha events to his name.)

Because he was staying at Valsad and was an active member of Rang Avadhoot Parivar, he took the support of this group. On 5-Jan-2004, he started this venture "Maa Rukumamba Vandevi Kanya Chhatralaya” at Vaghval (65 km from Valsad, 85 km from Bilimora and 135 km away from Surat) near Wilson Hills, Dharampur. “Aadi Gurushri Datt Charitable Trust” was formed to manage the show.

Presently, 31 girl students are staying there to study up to VIII standard at a Primary School nearby. All of them get a free stay, food, notebooks, textbooks, clothes, and uniforms with everything they need. Shri Kashiram Jadav and his team look after their needs and wellbeing round the clock.

At present, the Girls' hostel is not funded by any government machinery. So all the expenses listed above are born by this trust only. To reduce the burden, they offered us a girl adoption scheme (sponsorship) at Rs 5000 (Rupees five thousand) a year. My friends Dr Manoj Soni, Lion Dr Naliniben Gilitwala, Maheshbhai Raval and I have offered to adopt one girl child each. I have no doubt, you too shall volunteer for this noble cause.

After Parsis, Anavils (Anavil Brahmins, અનાવિલ બ્રાહ્મણ ) are the fastest decreasing community. The total population of Anavils around the world does not exceed two lakhs figure and that is also fast reducing day by day. Days are not far, beyond a century or so, when they will have to be seen/found in records, photos and videos. Why?

Because,
- they get married too late,
- many are dying unmarried,
- they wait for the career to be settled before the first (and maybe the only) childbirth.

One of the recent off-bit topics I’ve read, this one book about ‘Mumbai Mafia’ has been the most interesting, well-researched and well-written. Here is an excerpt from Dawood Ibrahim's journey from “Dongri to Dubai”, and the six decades of Mumbai mafia.